The Princess Dorm: An ROTG Fanfic
by jackfrostbeliever
Summary: This is a mega crossover story, consisting of a lot of Disney and a few OC's. Vanessa is the main character, a princess by marriage who is anything but, sent to a princess academy to become a lady. Naturally, that doesn't work out.
1. Chapter 1

My name is Vanessa and I have just been transferred to the Princess School for Royal Young Ladies. That is the longest my school name has ever been. Most of the girls there are either just plain mean or the preppiest people I have ever met. I suppose I should explain some more before I go on. My mother Trisha recently married King Something-or-Other, thus making me a princess. The king told my mother that I had to go to this dumb school to become a 'proper young lady.' As if he cared about me. He said that I would meet my twin stepsisters here but I'm trying so hard to stay away from anyone with the last name Kane, because they would probably end up being my stepsisters. I do not want to meet them, as you could have guessed. My whole first day, a girl named Snow White from the Disney Princess dorm that seemed completely out of it to me, showed me around the school. It's massive, because it's a castle. Then, when it was studying time right before dinner, she showed me to our dorm. Yup, I was going to be living in a dorm full of Disney Princesses. Only the royal ones though, not the ones who masquerade as princesses, who are inappropriately put in the princess category.

"So it appears as though you would be rooming with Merida and Rapunzel, through that door on your left. I'm with Ariel and Belle. Ariel likes to sing with me, but…" I went through the door before she could torture me with any more of her stories.

Once I was in the room, I could immediately tell that my roommates were weird. There was a target shot through with a bunch of arrows, a bow sitting nearby, and a bunch of blonde stringy stuff draped all over the room. Someone was in the shower, singing with a Scottish accent. Someone else was digging through the closet, throwing things carelessly behind her shoulder. Good, so they weren't neat freaks.

"Um, hello?" I called out.

A girl with long blonde hair in a purple dress leapt backwards, wielding a frying pan like a sword. That's when I realized that the blonde stringy stuff all over the place was this girl's hair. It was crazy long.

"Oh, you must be Vanessa! I hope you didn't want to take a shower because she is going to be in there for a while. She's a hot water hog."

"I heard that!" exclaimed the Scottish girl from the bathroom, water running in the background.

"So, are you Rapunzel or Merida?"

"Rapunzel. So the girl in there is obviously Merida. How was your first day?"

"Oh, it was fine, I guess, although, between you and me and maybe Merida, Snow drove me crazy with her constant jabbering."

All three of them burst out laughing so hard that a girl with dark skin in a yellow dress poked her head in.

"Are y'all okay? Y'all been laughing harder than I've heard in a while," she said with her Louisiana twang.

"We're okay Tia. Oh, right, you haven't met Vanessa yet! She just got here three minutes ago," I waved.

Tia seemed to be taking in my outfit, a pale blue, puffy but not ball gown skirted dress, and slight amounts of silver rhinestones at the top, where it was so obviously strapless. She nodded as if in approval.

"That dress is fine quality. Very nice."

"Oh, well, thank you."

Merida chose that precise moment to come out of the bathroom in a green plaid towel, hair wrapped up in one as well.

"Tia, what are you adoin' here? I thought it was just Rapunzel an' the new girl!"

"Oh, Meri! I just stepped in for a minute to check on these two. They were laughing really loud, so I was a little nervous."

"Acause they were alaughin'?"

"Well, yeah. That and I need my frying pan back. Quick question. Why is it in your hand?" her eyes widened. "And you dented this one too! What do you do to these things when I lend them to you?"

Rapunzel put her hand to her mouth and snickered. That was the universal sign for 'I'll never tell.' I didn't even want to know anymore. It might be something awkward. Probably not.

"Well, you owe me six now. Naveen wanted me to bring him some bacon for his birthday present and I can't make him any until Friday now."

Merida came back into the room from the bathroom wearing a simple green dress, her wild mane of curly red hair let loose. She smiled then looked at the clock.

"Oh no! We'll be late to dinner! Round up the troops Tia!"

Tia went out into the lobby and stood right in front of the main door. She stuffed her fingers in her mouth and whistled the loudest whistle I had ever heard. Every girl in the whole dorm ran down all of the five flights of stairs until there was a neat line up in front of Tiana. Rapunzel pulled me in line behind her.

"Alright, who's ready for some jambalaya? Helped make it myself."

She made some good jambalaya, as I would learn later. We made our way down through the main lobby and into the dining room. Once inside, we were allowed to start mingling with the princes from neighboring academy. All of the Disney girls appeared to have boyfriends except Merida and I.

"Well, I suppose we should sit together and eat our grub," said Merida.

"Right you are."

Where was I? Oh, yes! Dinner. Merida and I sat at our table talking, laughing, and just generally enjoying one another's company. We both loved the jambalaya, but Merida said that her favorite meal was haggis. Once she was finished describing it to me, and what was in it, I didn't ever want to eat it. Ever. I told her about my favorite food, spaghetti, and she looked at me like I was insane.

"What on Earth are you tryin' to describe to me? I dunna unerstand."

"Long stringy noodles, covered in tomato sauce. It's not hard to understand!"

"I ne'er heard of it afore. I'm a Scot, not a Brit."

"Spaghetti is Italian, and I'm not British. My mother is. I'm from Canada."

"What the blazes is a Canada? I ne'er heard o' that either."

"It's a new country. The Scottish empire wants a little island-like part of it, called… well actually, it doesn't have a name yet. We were visiting when my mom met the king, and then here I am now." I looked over and saw two girls with brown hair and violet eyes, just like what's-his-name. They had a princess air about them, so I turned away fast. They had to be Kirsty and Kayla. I looked at Merida. "Are those two girls behind me Kirsty and Kayla Kane?"

"Yeah. What's it to you? Are they atryin' to stick you up an' take yer bangles?"

"No, but they might try to later. My stepfather is King Kane, and they are my stepsisters."

"Ooh, that is a nasty piece of luck. Just dunot talk to them, and they will probably ignore you. They've never seen you, have they?"

"Never, and I never wanted to meet them. They seem perfectly horrid to me."

"Oh, aye! Truer words were never aspoken. Jus avoid them plainly, an' all should be well."

"They don't strike me as girls who'll ignore the new girl."

No sooner had the words left my mouth than they came forward, bombarding me with questions.

"Are you a Disney girl too? They are sooo lame!" said Kirsty with her overly squeaky voice.

"Yeah. You aren't, right? Tell me you're not!" Kayla seemed to be demanding.

I straightened my spine and glared at both of them. "If you think the Disney Princess dorm is lame, then yes, I will proudly admit to being one myself. Now shove off!"

"Losersaurus!" yelled Kirsty so loud that everyone in the room turned to look at her. Merida and I burst out laughing. She was the Losersaurus, merely for coming up with such a word in the first place.

"Um, Kirsty, honey, are you okay?" asked Tiana, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Get your servant hands off of me! I don't take sympathy from the help!" exclaimed Kirsty.

"Kirsty, I have every right to be here. I paid, I'm from royalty, I…" Kirsty cut her off.

"You're only here because your boyfriend pulled strings for you! You are not from any royal family at all!"

"Three quarters of the girls in this whole school are here on a count of string pulling. Except for a couple, the whole Disney dorm is there because of their boyfriends."

"Exactly! Because you're all just a bunch of street rats!"

Aladdin and Jasmine stood up in indignation, not because they were angry at being called street rats, but because street rat was a horrible term that brought up bad memories for Aladdin. I stood up as well.

"I don't have a boyfriend and I'm not originally from royalty." Almost every girl in the room gasped. "And, no, I'm not a stowaway. My mother married a king. I don't even want to be here. I will say this though. The Disney dorm is the best place in the whole school and I'll tell you why. Because they all had the kindness to like me the minute I showed up and didn't even know me yet."

All the girls from the Disney dorm (and there was a lot of them) stood up and linked arms with me. There, I'd started a revolution, and that day I was destined to fit in with the Disney girls.

"Wait a minute! What's your name?" asked Kayla.

"Vanessa Clemens. My mother is Trisha Clemens." I replied with pride.

"Oh my God! That street rat is our stepsister!" squealed Kirsty.

They ran out of the room yelling that they were going to go down socially until nobody knew their names. When they were way out of earshot, everyone in the room cheered.

"Oh, thank God! They are so annoying, I just want to choke them every time that I see them!" exclaimed Jasmine, putting a hand on my shoulder.

There was a chorus of yeah's and some more cheering. Then a bell tinkled in the kitchen and a girl with long orange hair in a flowing pink dress poked her head out.

"Are they gone?" asked the girl tentatively.

"It's okay for you guys to come out and eat now. Who wants some beignets?" asked Tiana.

"I'll help you make them!" said Cinderella.

Out from the kitchen came a couple of girls. They took a seat on the chairs that were empty and had bowls of jambalaya in front of them. Tiana and Cinderella disappeared into the kitchen. I went up to a girl with white hair in blue tribal wear and asked her what was going on.

"Oh, the only people who are judgmental about the royalty thing are the K Terrors, so these girls make dinner and only get to eat when they leave. Their names are Giselle, Mulan, Charlotte, and Melody. Melody is Ariel's sister, and I'm Kida."

We all ate and had a general good time until Tiana and Cinderella came out with two trays weighed down with beignets each. They set each tray down on a table, and then went back into the kitchen for more.

"We have these for dessert every day, but they never get old!" said Merida, doing a highland dance while eating a beignet.

By the time that the bell tolled seven, time for everyone to go to their dorms, we were all dancing and laughing and mingling. When the bell had rung though, the other students ran like crazy to get to the various staircases and doorways. I didn't get why they were in such a hurry, it was just a bell. It wasn't like we were going to die if we were five minutes late. Soon I was the only one left standing in the lobby. I looked down one hallway in awe as I saw swirling blue mist heading in my direction. What was it? As it was just about to touch me, a yellow rope fell over my head and caught at my waist, tightening, and then I was pulled up above a balcony and into my dorm room.

"What were you thinking?! You can't stay downstairs past seven! You might have got caught in the Mist!" exclaimed Rapunzel. It was then that I noticed that the rope was really her hair.

"What does it do? Is it just for a haunting effect?" I wondered.

"We're not really sure exactly what it does. We only had that spare bed for you acause a girl named Collette got caught in it. We ne'er saw 'er again." Merida said ominously.

"Was she a princess?" I asked.

"No, she was just a rich one. She was dating an heir, so he tapped into his pocket money for her. But we've never seen her since. Good came from it though. YOU'RE HERE NOW!" Rapunzel yelled so loud I jumped back seventy feet.

I heard several girls scream, because, you know, they're princesses. Their nerves are never right. The door opened and a girl with black hair in a ponytail with the same bangs as Ariel came in. She was wearing a white cotton nightgown.

"Hey Melody. Your bed's all ready!" said Rapunzel. She went over to the couch and grabbed the bottom. As she pulled on it, it became evident that it was a futon.

"Why does she sleep here? Doesn't she have a room too?" I asked.

"Because the Disney dorm was completely full when she came. We wanted to do some good in the world so we let her sleep here. We've been doing it ever since," explained Rapunzel.

Melody settled down under the blankets and Merida climbed up onto the very top bunk. Rapunzel left the room and came back wearing a huge bonnet that all of her hair was tied up into. She climbed into the middle bunk. I went under the bottom bunk and grabbed my suitcase. I pulled out my blue silk nightgown and changed into it in the bathroom. I came back out and saw that Merida had the bow I saw earlier in the day in her hands and an arrow notched and ready. She released the string and an arrow zipped straight to the bull's-eye on the target.

"There, I can sleep in peace now." I looked up at her funny. "What? It looked so tempting; I had to do it afore Rapunzel told me to put my bow awee."

"All right, you can put your bow 'awee' now." Rapunzel said with a laugh.

Merida turned and hung it up on a hook next to her. I climbed in the bottom bunk and reflected on the day, as Mom had made me do at home. I felt like family here. I liked it. I rolled over and closed my eyes. And thus ended my first day in the Disney dorm.


	2. Wonderland

I woke to the sound of Melody singing. I rolled over and saw her sitting on her bed, brushing her hair and singing. When she noticed that I was awake, she stopped and blushed.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up," apologized Melody. Her voice was low, so I knew that my other roommates were both asleep.

"Well, I guess I might as well shower, or take a bath. Big day of classes today, so," I said as I slid out of bed.

"Why get ready for class so early though?" she asked.

"What time is it?" I wondered if it was just six.

"It's seven thirty, but classes for the Disney dorm don't start until eleven."

"Then why are you up?"

"Serenading the sun. It's just a little something that Pocahontas got me used to when we were at camp."

"You went to camp?"

"Yeah, I went to camp. We all did. We go every month."

"When are you going next?"

"Next week. Oh, you get to come with us this time! Merida would like to expand her camp experience by one other friend. You seemed to be getting to know each other last night."

"I did learn a lot about her, and she learned a lot about me. Just do me a favor and explain spaghetti to her. She doesn't get the concept."

Melody giggled softly. She looked around, stood up, headed for the door and gestured for me to follow her. Naturally, I did. She led me down the front steps and out the front door. We arrived at a little building where there were already a couple of the girls from the Disney dorm, like Ariel, Tiana, Belle, Giselle, and Kida.

"Hello again, Vanessa! Care to join me for a cinnamon roll?" asked Kida, patting the bench next to her. I walked over and sat down next to her.

"So where are you from?" asked Kida excitedly.

"I'm from Canada, and you?" I replied.

"I'm from Atlantis. Tia's from New Orleans, Melody and Ariel are from… well, I don't know. Giselle is from Andalasia, and nobody is sure where Belle is from, not even Belle herself. Do you have any siblings?"

"Just two, but they are only related to me by marriage. The K Terrors are my stepsisters. Other than that, nope, none of those."

"I have none either. I personally like it better, being an only child."

"How old are you anyways? I'm fourteen. Fifteen in three days."

"I'm fourteen as well, except I only turned fourteen two days ago. Most of us are either thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen. Except for Ariel and Eric. They're both seventeen."

I was starting to like this place better and better every day, and I'd only been here two days. I could count on both my hands how many friends I'd made so far, which was more friends than at all my previous schools combined. That and I didn't have to do any work until eleven every day! We also had a nifty hangout for those early mornings where staying in bed would be impossible. By nine, all of the girls from the dorm, including the non-royals, were all there, enjoying Tiana's endless stream of various desserts. I'd never eaten dessert this early in the morning, and if being here would allow me to do that, no matter how awful things might get to be, I would stay forever.

I learned more about each princess before eleven. Ariel liked to collect things, but her dad didn't like it so much. Tiana dreamt of opening a restaurant. Belle just wanted to go out and have an adventure. Merida wanted to ride free in the wind and make her own fate. Rapunzel had been dreaming of leaving her tower and having a life for so long, and she was so happy that she'd finally been allowed to go ahead and have one. Cinderella, well, she was all fine and dandy, now that Charles had whisked her off of her feet. Aurora just wanted to find love, which she had. Giselle just wanted her prince to come whisk her away, which hadn't happened yet. Charlotte wanted nothing but to be a real princess instead of Daddy's princess. She'd had her eye on Naveen before she realized that it was pointless because Tiana and Naveen were in love. Mulan had run away and joined the army in the place of her father at the age of thirteen. Luckily she was tall for her age, or they never would have bought it.

The bell rang and we all ran for the doors. I ran faster than was necessary, because I was afraid that Mist stuff was going to come out and kill me or whatever it did. Kida laughed and said that only happened at seven. I calmed down. Kida waved and said she would see me during the next class, Magic, which we both had together. I had Animal Talking 101. Cinderella, Snow White and Giselle were all in that, and so was a whole other bunch of people from the other dorms. I hadn't ever even bothered to learn the names of the other dorms, and I also didn't care enough to bother. There was one prince who sat next to the window writing the whole time that I was intrigued by. I heard the teacher say his name. Derek. I sat staring at him for three quarters of the class and once, he looked me in the eye! Then he immediately looked back down. In that look, I saw something different. I knew he wasn't like other princes at this school. He had to be special. As I was leaving class and heading to Magic, his hand brushed up against mine and I got chills. Maybe he was an elf prince. I saw his ear. Rounded like a human's ear. Shame, elves are so interesting. Kida snuck up on me and wrapped her arm through mine as we were walking. She scared me to death. I almost fell flat on my face.

"Kida, you almost made me fall and break my neck!"

"You wouldn't have broken your neck, but you would have hit your head."

"Why would you say that? I still don't want to hit my head!"

"Well, you didn't so let's just get to class."

We sat next to each other in class and Kida was assigned to catch me up in the gazebo. We just sat out there while she taught me about her Atlantean crystal, and what they did.

"They're all pieces from a giant floating crystal which supplies our city with the power to keep on thriving, even underwater. We give them to our babies the day of their birth and we have them around our necks long after we die. Because of these necklaces though, we live hundreds, sometimes thousands of years before we die. I myself am one hundred and forty."

"But you said this morning that you were fourteen."

"Every ten years that we live, our bodies mature by one year. All of our toddlers are ten or twenty years old in human time. If I were to take this necklace off up here, I would crumble away to dust and be dead. This crystal is what started our life force, and this crystal is what keeps our life force going." The bell rang off in the distance. "And on that note, it's time for lunch. I think Tia made pizza."

"I always wanted to try pizza."

"You've never had it? Didn't you go to Italy?"

"I did, but I wasn't allowed to eat any of the pizza. Mother said it was too messy for a princess to consume. But it looked delicious."

"Oh, it is. Only there are a few of the Disney girls who are to princessey to eat it, like Belle and Snow White. Tia makes them gumbo instead."

Once we were inside the cafeteria, I saw that Mulan and Merida were already deeply engrossed in the pizza. Mulan was taking a bite out of a slice, standing at one end of the table. Merida seemed to be giving her a tutorial on how to take a slice without the cheese stretching. She was clearly on the last step.

"… And, out with a twist!" she said triumphantly as she removed the piece and took a bite. Snow White looked over at them and Belle flicked her hand.

"Ignore them, Snow." she said bitterly.

I laughed and went over to the pizza. I slid off my white gloves and handed them to Kida, who stuffed them in a pouch. I grabbed a piece and took it out, but not without the cheese stretching to unbelievable lengths.

"Och, you're doin' it wrong. Here, just cut it with a knife and it should be all well. I forgot the first step to making sure it doesn't stretch already." advised Merida.

I reached for the knife and cut each little string of cheese. Then, I cautiously took a dainty bite. Merida laughed.

"Nope, yer doin' it all wrong. Bite it like you mean it! Bite it like yer not afraid to get sauce on the corners of yer mouth!"

I bit into it and meant it and sauce got all over my mouth. I resisted the urge to reach for the napkin and finished the whole slice.

"You've done me proud lass. Yer free to wipe yer face now. I would do it fast, afore Derek sees you like that."

I lunged for the napkin and scrubbed my mouth so hard; I probably lost two layers of skin. When I threw out the napkin, Mulan and Merida were laughing the hardest I'd ever heard anyone laugh before. Mulan was leaning on the table, and Merida was rolling on the floor.

"You cleaned up fast enough when…" Mulan had to pause to keep laughing. "When she mentioned Derek!"

I blushed and looked around. Kida explained to me that there were two Derek's, the single one who most people thought were weird and the one dating Anastasia. I was never to confuse the two, because things would just be awkward if I did. I relaxed and then ate as much pizza as I could hold. Then it was back to school work. I had one class left, one that was really long, which almost all of the Disney girls were in, except Merida, Esmeralda, and Charlotte. It was Singing. Almost all of the other girls were naturals, pros and champs, top of the class. Then there was me. I'm not sure exactly how I did. They asked me to sing, gave me some lyrics, and I did my best. What I was really the best at was playing a musical accompaniment. I play violin, and when they told Rapunzel to come up and sing 'Think of Me', I played like a full orchestra all alone. By the end, the people were clapping and cheering, not completely for Rapunzel, but also for me.

Then, to supper. Basically a repeat of the previous night except for one minor detail. Derek was writing and walking at the same time, which he had told me was hard for him to do when he walked straight into the Mist. We hadn't even had the chance to get to know each other yet, so I did the radical thing. I went straight in after him.

It was the strangest feeling I'd ever experienced. I didn't die, I went somewhere. Somewhere where the trees were made of candy and the air smelled of sweet blossoms. A wise old caterpillar (yes a caterpillar) told me that I had approximately twenty minutes to find the mist in this world before I'd be stuck here forever. I found Derek and we both made our way to… somewhere. In this place, it was always somewhere, never anywhere in particular. We found a little girl in a blue dress and wearing an apron. She told us her name was Alice and she begged us to take her with us. What else could we do but say yes? She had a kitten with her and Derek was allergic, so we threw it down a well.

"Mommy's sorry, but I'm going to leave you here to die."

"What the heck is wrong with you? I thought we were going to be together until I died!" yelled the cat, which freaked me out.

"Well, we are, because I'm leaving you here to die!"

So we kept walking. Things were getting, as Alice put it 'curiouser and curiouser' as we walked. There was so much strange stuff going on that I just stopped looking. Soon, we had found the mist and went straight into it. We emerged in the Disney dorm, actually, which was weird.

"Whoa, this is absolutely strange! Where are we anyways?" asked Alice.

"The Academy, inside the Disney dorm." said Derek. "The girl's side. That means I should probably leave. I'll see you in Animal Talking 101."

My heart skipped for no real reason. I wasn't infatuated, was I? I didn't think so. But then again, what do I know about love? Nothing. Never been in love, never understood it, never wanted it as much as I had today. Or did I? I didn't know! I was so confused! Alice ran around in circles, squealing with excitement at being at the school. Snow White came out because there was someone who was excited. She got excited too, and soon we had two nutcases running around and singing. I face-palmed. They were such Carolines. I shushed them down and sent them both to Snow's room and I went into my room.

"I tell ya, she's not comin' home on her own. We have to go get her!" I heard Merida exclaim.

"Just keep your head; she'll be home so…" That was the point at which Rapunzel noticed me.

It was also at that point that I realized how good of a friend she was. She ran over to me as fast as she could and grabbed me in a hug. I was amazed when she started sobbing on my shoulder, soaking my dress. It was the most touching thing I'd ever had happen to me.

"I was so worried. Where were you?" sobbed Rapunzel.

"I got into the mist. We're fine, and we got another girl for the Disney dorm." I explained.

"Ya found Collette?" asked Merida in awe.

"No! We found a girl named Alice. She's in Snow's room, because their kind of the same. Such Carolines."

Rapunzel looked up at me with bleary eyes and tear streaks all down her cheeks. It was a look of confusion. The Caroline thing was an inside joke that I don't have time nor care to explain just now. Next time I write, I'll explain.

"Well, thank the Lord yer back. I was about to grab ma bow an' come find ya."

I smiled, and then yawned. They both laughed. I guess going around and around that Wonderland was really tiring. I smiled then made my way to the bathroom to take a bubble bath. When I was finished, I dressed; blow dried my hair, and lay down in bed.

"Don't ever go into the mist again!" said Rapunzel.

"I don't plan on doing that again; I only went in because Derek got into it."

"Oh, I see. Because Derek went in."

"I didn't…Good night Rapunzel. I'll give you details in the morning." I said coldly.

I heard her roll over and I did as well. I closed my eyes and dreamed a strange dream of Wonderland. I was running through a candy tree forest, trying to get to Rapunzel. She was calling to me for help, so that's what I was doing. When I went into a clearing, I saw her standing there. She looked at me and said coldly, "I didn't need your help."


	3. Jack

Okay, so you all begged me to explain the Caroline thing. It's about a girl I used to know. She was really dumb, and her name was Caroline. Well, she wasn't exactly dumb, she was just a nutcase. She didn't really grasp the concept of anything, and she ran around saying a bunch of stuff that I guess she thought was really impressive and smart, but it was just a bunch of gibberish to the normal people. I was the only person who was even nice to her, but on the inside, she drove me absolutely insane. I was glad to leave her behind when Mom married that king guy. She cried when I left, but I just hugged her and left. Even that annoyed me. There, you've been informed, and we can get back to the story.

When I woke up, nobody was singing, which was a slight disappointment, but no one was even in the room. That was also very disappointing. Then I heard a rush in the hallway and my door swung open. It was the Alice girl that we had saved last night.

"Come quickly! There are two new boys just arriving in the Dreamworks dorm!"

I threw on my housecoat and we both ran down the stairs, Alice holding my hand and pulling me faster than I wanted to go. When we got to the lobby, I saw two boys; neither of them could possibly be older than fourteen. One was barefoot, wearing brown pants and a blue drawstring hoodie, all covered in frost. He'd clearly not changed clothes for a while, which was evident because of the fact that his pants legs only went down to his ankles. The hoodie fit fine. His hair was white, spiked up like he could care less about how his hair looked. He carried with him a long stick with a curve on the top, it too frosted over. He was swishing the bottom of it on the floor absently. As he did, the carpet covered in frost that wouldn't seem to melt. He had slight freckles, not as much as I did, and a mischievous look in his eyes, a look that said, "If you and I are going to be friends, you're going to have to get used to being in trouble." They were a pale, pale blue, so pale you almost couldn't tell whether they were blue or white.

The other boy had brown hair that went down to his chin. It was also messy, and he clearly didn't care how it looked. He had a nervous smile, and I saw that he had a little gap between his top front teeth. He wore a coarsely woven blue-green long-sleeve shirt with a brown fur vest over top. His pants were brown, and he had a brown fur boot over one of his feet. His other foot… well, it wasn't a foot. It was some sort of metal contraption. I immediately insisted in my mind that I would find out how it happened. He kept pointing out the window and mentioning this Toothless guy. When I actually bothered to look out the window, I saw a giant black dragon. From what I could hear of what he was saying, that dragon was his. His big brown eyes said, "I will try and try to do what would make you happy, but I probably won't be able to do it. I hope you're okay with that." There was also a touch of sadness in them and I could immediately see that something really awful had been said or done to him, and recently too.

I didn't feel like flirting with either of them. Before I saw Derek, I used to be a great big flirt, but now that Derek was in my life, no matter how minorly, I didn't want anything to do with any other boy until Derek flat out said that he didn't like me and I knew he meant it. Well, at least, that's how I felt then. Besides, Merida and the brunette were already laughing and talking and seeming to be getting to know each other, so I would stay out of that. Rapunzel was singing that magic song that made her hair glow for the frost kid, and his eyes were glowing. Not from the light of her hair, but from wonder. There was another look in his eyes now, one that said, "I know you and love you already, but you don't know me." Kind of like a stalker's eyes, but with less of a stalker attitude and more of a guardian look, if you understand that.

"What are their names, if you know them?" I asked Alice.

"The frosty one is none other than Jack Frost, and the brunette's name is Hiccup." I stared at her funny. "It's a tradition where he's from. The uglier the name, the less likely they are to be kidnapped by goblins. Foolish of course, but it's his name now, so we'll accept it."

I smiled. This school was like a family tree with only two bad apples. I thought of them like my brothers and sisters. Except for Derek. He was more like… not family. I loved these two boys like family already. I decided to heck with it! I would just go up and hug them both. Hiccup waved at me and asked Merida for my name.

"Oh, that's Vanessa. She came here only two wee days ago."

"Welcome to the school Hiccup. I hope you feel like family here." Then I hugged him. At first he was all shocked, but then he hugged me back. Merida looked at me and mouthed "What are you doing?"

"Thanks Vanessa. I hope so too." Hiccup smiled and I waved as I went over to Jack.

Jack's smile matched his original eye-message, of friendship and trouble. He waved to me before Rapunzel noticed that I was there.

"Oh! Jack, this is Vanessa. She's new too, only came two days ago." Rapunzel cocked her head in my direction.

"Hi Jack. You're not going to get into too much trouble here, are you?" I asked.

"I'm not making any promises." He laughed, and it made me want to start a snowball fight, to have fun, and run around, not give a care about my responsibilities.

I shrugged off the feeling and wrapped my arms around him. He was as cold as I thought he would be. Jack wrapped his arms around me too.

"Welcome to the family Jack." I said softly.

"Glad to be here Vanessa." He let me go and kissed my cheek. Rapunzel told me that little swirly frost patterns appeared on my cheek and stayed for over ten minutes. She also glared at me as if she wanted to burn a hole through my… well, my whole body. I didn't get it.

When I walked away, I touched my cheek where he had kissed it and felt severely conflicted. He had all the wonder and whimsy that I strived to have. If I couldn't be that whimsical, I wanted to be with somebody who was. But what about Derek? Didn't I like him? I was so conflicted. I didn't feel like liking this boy was an option, more like I had to, and was happy to. But still conflicted. If what happened to change that hadn't happened, I still would be. But it did, and now I'm with the guy I want to be with. Oops, almost gave something away! Lips sealed about the future for now. I'm married, don't act all surprised. Back to my memoirs.

So I went through my regular schedule and I found out that I had Magic with Jack as well. He sat next to me.

"I hope you don't mind that I sit here." Jack said with a shrug.

"Oh, no it's not. It's safe to sit there, and … I'd like you to sit there." I snapped out of my stupor. "I mean, because Mrs. Pendragon would like me to catch you up on you studies, most likely."

He looked from side to side, and then he kicked his feet up on the desk and blew a shaft of cold air all through the room. The room was soon occupied with a mysterious blizzard and Jack reached for my hand.

"Where are we going?" I asked nervously.

"Anywhere but here. Come on, Vanessa, let's have some fun."

I smiled and took his hand. We ran out the class door just as the blizzard began to settle. He took me outside. He swished his staff around and the courtyard became filled with snow. While I was looking around in wonder and feeling a lot less homesick, he whipped a snowball at the back of my head. I turned around with a shocked expression and gasped.

"You dare hit a princess?" I asked.

"I saved the world. I can throw snowballs at princesses all day long if I want to."

I made it seem like I had let it go and started to roll a giant snowball. When Jack asked me what I was doing, I said I was making a snowman. He offered to help, so I let him. He touched it with his staff and it became as big as the base of a snowman normally is. I did the best hold-together spell I knew and hefted the thing up when his back was turned. I was strong enough to carry it without struggling, so I walked as a normal person would. He didn't turn around until I had already dropped the thing straight on top of his head. He collapsed into a snow bank and didn't move.

"Jack, are you okay?" I asked, worried as all get out.

He didn't answer for a long while when he did he said, "Help me up. I think some of my ribs are broken."

I panicked and grabbed his hand, delicately helping him up. When he was on his feet, I still had his hand, and I was wrapping his arm around my shoulder so that I could help him in. When it was completely around, he smirked and leaned on me so hard I lost my balance and ended up face-first in the snow bank. He laughed when he saw my face, red and covered in snow.

"Nobody out pranks the master." said Jack. I laughed and held out my hand for him to help me up. When he grabbed it, I yanked him down with me.

He laughed faintly, but then he looked into my eyes with severity. He was so close to my face, I could fell his warm breath on my cheek. For one minute, I thought he was going to kiss me. Then I remembered that we had just met, and I didn't have a crush on him, let alone want to kiss him.

He instead helped me up and asked me if I could stand a long story. I told him my mother used to tell me stories about how grass grew and how to know if it was growing right.

"Wow, your mother is extremely boring. I pity you for having to live with her."

"I know. It was torture, but King… um… what's his face was worse. He took Mom away and didn't ever talk to me." I started to get sad. "Pretty soon Mom stopped talking to me too. Neither of them cared about anything I said or did unless it was something bad." I started to cry. "This school was all his idea and it actually turned out fine, but I'm so confused right now about you name it. I can't stay here and risk losing it all, but if I don't stay, I'm forced to going back to being ignored and neglected."

For a guy as cold as Jack Frost, he had the warmest smile, laugh, and heart of anyone I'd ever met. He put his hand under my chin and tilted my head up so I could look into his eyes.

"Vanessa, I don't age. I've been around for as long as the world can remember, making snow and frost and cold wherever I go. Nothing about my life was warm; I had no home, no friends, and no comfort. I played around with the children and did what I liked to do, telling myself that if I just abandoned all responsibilities, that I would live on this Earth and have fun and never need anyone. That worked out fine, until one day, I found a tower in a clearing of a place I had never stopped in before. In the window, I saw the face of a little girl, which surprised me, because it was the middle of the night." I managed a laugh, and it wasn't even forced. "I flew up to the window and asked the girl what she was doing. She said…"

"You could fly?" I asked in amazement.

"Well, I still can, actually." Jack pushed off of the ground and whooshed in a loop de loop before touching down again. "She told me that she was watching her birthday lights. She pointed, and sure enough, there were little lights throughout the whole sky. She said that one day she wanted to go see her lights in person, but her mother wouldn't let her leave the tower. She looked at me and asked that I come back on the same day the next year. I came on that day every year until she turned seven. That was three years. On the fourth year, I forgot precisely which day her birthday was and was too embarrassed to go apologize. I also didn't want to break her heart further, so I never came again. It was tragic, because I promised her on her fifth birthday that one day; I would take her to go see the lights. When I finally worked up the nerve to go back and apologize, she was gone. I thought I'd never see her again. But I did. I saw her again today, and thank the heavens that she doesn't remember me."

"C'mon, you're killing me. Tell me who it was!" I was eager now, so very eager.

"Rapunzel. Just don't tell her, I'd sound creepy. The point is, for years, I've been in love, and for years, I've had to pretend I was all right. It's not good for your soul, so promise me you'll never do anything that you're going to regret when you grow up. Even if you do, at least you'll die and never have to live with you regrets as long as I have lived with mine."

I didn't want to be like this boy anymore. I thought he was carefree, worried about nothing, but he was more sorrowful than anyone I'd ever met. I didn't think for a moment and, without hesitation or doubt, kissed Jack square on the mouth. Then I pulled away in sadness, because I had a suspicion that I was the first person to ever have kissed him, which I found sad.

"Oh, now I've gone and done it."I ran away crying. One minute we were fine, just getting to be friends, and then I go ahead and confuse everyone, myself and Jack.

I ran until I could see no more snow and it had all melted off of me. I found the only logical place I could think to go; the gazebo Kida and I had sat in yesterday. Was it really just yesterday that my life had made sense? It felt like years ago. When I was inside, who but Derek would be sitting there?

"Oh, Vanessa! Good to see you. I was looking for you, actually. There's a dance tomorrow, and I was wondering if you would…" I cut him off.

"Derek, I can't say yes or no to that. I'm turning my back on our tomorrow and forgetting our yesterday. There will be no we or us for a very long time. I'm never going to be part of an us if all of this keeps up." I ran back into the school and went to my room, sat and cried.

I don't know how long I was up there for before Merida opened the door. Hiccup was there as well.

"…And this is my…" She heard me and ran over to grab my hands. Hiccup came in too. "Och, are ya okay? Are ya hurt?"

"Only in my heart, Meri, only in my heart." I continued to sob and wouldn't explain anything to either of them.

"Okay, well, I'm just going to…Yeah. I'll see you at dinner Merida." Hiccup stood and left.

"Are ya goin' to tell me anything now that he's gone?" I continued to sob. "I take it that's a no. You do realize you've been awailin' for over an hour now?" I stopped as if on cue.

"Crying's overrated." I said with my voice completely normal.

"Wow. I should have done that a while ago." She laughed. She looked at the clock. "It's lunch now. Are ya comin' with me?"

I shrugged. I wanted to see the girls, but would I be able to face Jack after what had happened despite all he'd told me about his love for Rapunzel?


	4. Shredding the Note

So there I was, sitting in my room, unsure of where to go from here. Did I want to face Jack and Derek, and everyone else that I had let down, or did I want to hide up here forever and run from my problems, like my mother had told me millions of times was never the solution? I wasn't sure anymore. Was going against my upbringing make me a bad person? I consulted myself, and together we decided that it was. I slowly made my way down to the cafeteria and tried not to be seen on my way there. When I peeked through the window, I saw Jack talking with Rapunzel. Apparently, he hadn't told her about the kiss, because when she noticed me, she started waving and pointing at me. Jack turned around and saw me too. He smiled and waved, but there was a look in his eyes that said, "Why?"

They'd all seen me now. Except Derek, he wasn't there. I wasn't sure where to sit, so I just sat by myself. That attracted more people than it repelled, because usually I'm a very cheery, social girl, and I love to be around people. So everyone that I didn't want to be around came and sat down with me. Rapunzel, Jack, Merida, and Hiccup. Even Tiana. I wasn't avoiding her; I just didn't want to be around her at the moment.

"I heard you and Jack had a snowball fight," said Tiana with a laugh.

"Yeah, we did. Well, not really a fight, more like a 'who's the man?' thing," said Jack, his eyes never leaving mine.

I didn't say anything, but as it turns out a conversation unfolded before me anyways. They all wanted to talk about what Jack and I had done, but thankfully none of them knew about the kiss. I didn't want anyone knowing about that. Not even Jack or myself. It was a mistake, nothing more.

_There are no mistakes, _Mom's voice echoed in my head. _There's only destiny messing with your head when you need something most. _

I wished right then and there that Mom wasn't so right all of the time. She knew, had known, and always would know. Even when she wasn't in the same country as me, her advice would be the most valuable. I looked up at Jack to find that his eyes were still on mine. I wished that I knew some way to tell him I was sorry without opening my mouth. Then I got an idea. I whispered the words to a telepathy spell that I learned yesterday and waited. Then I could hear all of his thoughts.

_What was that that she was just whispering? Was she trying to tell me something? Why is she looking at me like that? Is she upset? Her eyes are red. She must have been crying. If someone made her cry, I'm going to go out and punch them right in the face, because this girl is amazing. Why would anyone want to make her cry? I wish I knew what she was thinking about._

What Jack didn't know was that I could talk to him through my mind, so that solved my 'we're in public' issue.

_Jack, I'm sorry I kissed you. I just got so moved, but now everyone's confused._

_It's like I can hear her apologizing in my head._

_Jack, that's because you can. Don't say anything about that kiss to anyone._

_How are you talking to me through my mind? Oh, right, that telepathy spell. Why are you sorry for kissing me? Are you ashamed of me?_

_That's not it and you know it Jack. It's just we were both in love with someone else, and I think it's best if we just stay separate. It's for the best we get our distance. We each go out with the one that we liked and if we both get dumped or decide to leave the person we're dating, then we'll be together._

_I don't want to be with Rapunzel anymore. I want to be with you now. You can't just kick me to the curb because you're embarrassed and you're too proud to admit it._

_That is not why. I'm confused right now. Short of Derek dying, I don't think I could go out with you._

Destiny was probably overhearing, because seconds later, the other Derek burst into the cafeteria, calling out for Pocahontas.

"What's the matter Derek?" she asked.

"Derek's dead! I found him lying in some bushes. It was too gruesome for me to look at, so I won't describe it. He's dead for sure, and it looks like an animal got him."

_Will you go out with me now?_

I just gave him a look like. "Are you kidding me?"

"Where'd you find him Derek?" I asked.

"Just inside the woods." He was sobbing now. If whatever he saw was that awful, I wasn't going to go look too.

"I'll go see too. Vanessa, keep him out of trouble, will you?" asked Rapunzel.

"I'm not making any promises." I replied with a laugh.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" asked Rapunzel.

"Go!" I said teasingly.

Jack looked at me as she ran out the door. He raised an eyebrow to say what words couldn't. I threw my hands up in surrender. Why the heck not? What reason was there to prevent me from going out with him? There was nothing wrong with it.

"Who's ready for the rest of lunch?" asked Tiana.

"What is it?' I asked.

"Balloon juice with plain hats!" Tiana exclaimed.

"What?" asked Jack.

"Root Beer floats with vanilla ice cream." She set the cup down on my coaster.

"Oh, my! That looks delightful!" I said, taking a sip. Jack laughed and took his glass from Tiana.

I laughed as we both blew bubbles in our already bubbly enough, spilling fizz all over the sides. Jack was okay to hang around, I guess. He wasn't a jerk and he wasn't all uptight like every other guy I'd ever dated. Maybe that was a good thing, but, then again, maybe it wasn't. I wouldn't know. I can't see into the future. Only one of the students at this school whose name I can't remember can do that. I've never even seen her, so I'm not about to go asking her whether it's a good thing.

"So… how's the float?" he asked. I sipped more and smiled.

"Good. Never drank one before, but it's delicious," I said with a laugh. "Is it the same for you?"

Jack was nodding so vivaciously that it looked like his head was going to fall off. I laughed again, realizing that I probably sounded stupid, laughing all the time and doing nothing else. I figured I should probably say something, but I wasn't sure what to say. Weather? No! Classes? Nope! Rapunzel? Not a chance! What? What should we talk about?

_How about we start with how awful you are at conversation? I'll go first. You're very slow to get to the point and you need to think less and just act first!_

I looked into Jack's eyes and blushed. I'd nearly forgotten about that telepathy spell. I opened my mouth to say something and then what the other Derek had said finally sunk in. Derek was gone. All he'd ever wanted from me was to go to a dance with him and I refused. Now I'd never be able to make it up to him. I put my head in my hands and started to sob. There went my first crush that I thought would last.

"What's wrong Vanessa? Did I hurt your feelings? What is it?" Jack asked, his voice so full of concern I thought I would explode.

"Derek. He… He's really gone. It didn't sink in until now, but now we'll never get to do anything together. Ever." I continued to sob and then stood. "Please excuse me, but I have to go."

I ran out the cafeteria door and then out the front door. As soon as I made my way to the back of the school, I could hear Rapunzel singing. Not just any song, the song that made her hair glow. I spotted the long trail of golden glowing hair and ran towards it.

"Rapunzel! Where is he?" I called out. There was no reply, the song just continued. "Rapunzel, are you okay?"

When she didn't reply again, I ran faster, my tears gone. I kept calling out to her, but there was no reply. I was getting really freaked out. When I finally got to her… it wasn't her. It was some sort of horrifying goblin-like creature with a glow following it. When it saw me, it smiled and said, in Rapunzel's voice exactly, "There you are, Vanessa. I've been looking all over for you! It's time to join Derek."

Before I could react, the thing had me pinned down on the ground, ripping at my clothes and skin with long, pointed talons. I'm not sure if I was screaming or not, but I'm certain that I probably was, because Jack came up slowly and silently behind the thing. He whacked it with his stick, sending it flying off into the underbrush. It came tearing back through the bushes. Jack touched it and it instantly froze in the position that is was in, now nothing more than a really ugly ice sculpture.

Jack then looked down at me and dropped to his knees. He put his hands to his mouth and I heard him mutter "Oh, God." I didn't feel much pain, so I was wondering how bad I really looked. He put one hand behind my neck and the other under my knees, and then hoisted me up.

"We have to find Rapunzel and get you some help." Jack was holding back tears. I must have looked much worse than I felt, because I'd never seen Jack cry before. It had only been one day, but still, he didn't strike me as a waterworks worker, if you know what I mean.

We found Rapunzel not far off. She saw Jack and smiled. Then she realized that he was carrying me and that I was bleeding pretty heavily. She ran over, tears running down her face, and kept muttering "Oh, God." I tried to move my arm. That was when I realized how badly hurt I was. Not only did it hurt to move, but there was blood just running down my arm and puddling on the ground beneath me. I knew that this much bleeding was not normal and if I didn't get help soon, I would die, without a doubt. I cried at this realization.

"Help her Rapunzel! She's going to die if you don't!" You couldn't miss the despair in his voice. I knew then that he really did love me and I felt bad leaving him like this.

"Jack…I'm sorry…that I'm going to die." I managed to get out.

"You're not going to die Vanessa," said Rapunzel. "But you sure did give us a scare."

I wondered what she was talking about, but I couldn't ask because I was starting to black out. I felt someone put something that felt oddly like hair in my hand, and then I heard Rapunzel singing. I knew the song by heart now, so I sung with her in my head, so that my last moments on this Earth would be one of friendship.

_Flower gleam and glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse; bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the Fates' design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine. What once was mine._

I smiled and waited for death to claim me. Nothing happened. My smile melted and I opened my eyes. The pain shrank and shrank until there was none left. I looked at my stomach and saw that I was no longer bleeding, just dried up blood was left. How had that happened?

"What…?" The silence I left asked what I could not.

"My hair. It heals people when it glows. I guess I should have told you." Rapunzel replied with a laugh.

Jack laughed with relief. I looked at my shredded dress and his sweater and realized that we were both caked with blood. The smell alone made me want to vomit. I ran my fingers through my hair, hoping there wasn't any in there. I quickly realized that my hair was so caked with it that I couldn't get my fingers through.

"I need a bath." For some reason they thought that was funny and they both started laughing. I always laugh when other people laugh, so soon we were all laughing. I guess we were all really laughing out of relief.

Jack carried me up to my room and kissed my forehead.

"Get all clean and I'll see you at dinner. Then we have a small issue of the dance tomorrow." I couldn't say anything.

Rapunzel promised that she'd make me a new dress while I was in the shower. I scoffed because I knew that would be impossible. I wouldn't take _that_ long in the shower. But sure enough, when I was out, she had a dress all ready on the mannequin. It was actually gorgeous. It was similar to the one that had gotten shredded, but it was better. It kind of looked like Belle's gown, only blue and strapless. I loved it.

"How'd you make that so fast?" I asked in amazement.

"When you like in a tower for the first fourteen years of your life with nothing to do, you develop a few skills. Now put it on."

When I put it on, I love it even more. It looked like it should be heavy, but it was surprisingly light and airy. I did a few twirls. I could move freely and I wasn't suffocating, so that was good. When I concluded that it was perfect, I hugged Rapunzel in a silent thank you for the dress and for saving my life.

"Well, I'll see you in Singing."

"That's now, you idiot." I said, tugging on her arm.

"Oh, right!"

So we had class, then it was time for dinner. Jack wasn't there, but Hiccup told me that he was still trying to get all the blood out of his sweater. I laughed and then we all ate and I headed back upstairs and went to bed.


	5. Memories

When I woke up, I realized that my room was covered in frost. Once my eyes cleared, I realized that Jack was standing right there. I laughed, for some weird reason. I actually could not stop laughing. Nothing funny had happened, I was just laughing. Jack started laughing too. By the time we had both stopped, we were on the floor, looking up at the ceiling.

"So, what are you here for, Jack?" I asked eagerly.

"I figured if we were going to go out, we might as well start right now. Classes don't start for my dorm until yours do, so we have some time." Jack replied.

"Could I maybe get dressed first? I don't do things in my pajamas."

Jack laughed and said, "Be fast." I grabbed the first dress I laid hands on and turned the corner so fast, I literally went flying into the bathroom. Jack laughed even harder. I changed into the gown so fast that I didn't even bother to comb my hair. Jack couldn't stop laughing now. I blew a strand of my strawberry blond hair out of my pale violet eyes, a blush creeping up into my cheeks.

"When I said be fast, I didn't mean fast enough to break your neck!" Jack managed to get out between laughs.

"Oh, Jack! Do you ever take anything seriously, as in not a joke?" I didn't mean it seriously, of course, but he stopped laughing and looked at me like I had just taken his heart and stomped on it so hard that it splattered onto the walls. Then the look went away and his smile was back.

"Sometimes. But as I've already explained to you, it's just easier to make it a joke." I held out my hand to him and he took it. When he was standing, we left the room and we went outside. I avoided the gazebo.

"We can't go there. That was the last place I saw Derek." It still hurt to mention him, so I didn't bring him up again.

We decided on the place we had our last excursion, the one with the snow. It had finally just melted. Too bad for the sun, because Jack just made more of it.

"If the sun were a person he would beat you up right now." I said with a laugh.

Jack looked at me and made a small laugh. Then we just looked at each other, all silent and serious. He gathered up the some snow and made a bench out of it He sat and patted the other side. I was a little wary to get close to him when there was snow around, after last time. But he had this look on his face that said "This is serious." When I was sitting, he just leaned back and sighed. He stared at the sky for so long; I was scared he had forgotten that I was there. Then he looked at me and I knew he was about to say something important.

"Vanessa, can I tell you something that I've never told anyone?" Jack asked.

"Unless it's that you have three extra toes, sure." I replied.

"No, that's not it. It's about… where I came from."

"Look, nothing personal, but I don't need the exact details of your birth."

"Oh, God, no! That's not it! That's where Jack came from. I want to tell you where Jack Frost came from."

"What's the difference?"

"Jack was a normal boy. Jack Frost isn't. He's me now. I used to live in a little village, so long ago; I don't think it's even called Durock anymore."

"Probably not. It doesn't sound familiar."

"Well, anyways, I was a fun-loving guy even all that time ago. I had a little sister. It was so long ago, I don't even remember her name. The last time I saw her, she was seven. She's dead for certain now, but she will always be seven in my mind." I could tell this was getting hard for him to say. "I can't tell you, so this will have to do."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tooth. He put it in my hand and suddenly I wasn't sitting outside the school anymore; I was watching two brown- haired children standing on a frozen pond, a little girl and a teenage boy who looked exactly like Jack, except he had brown hair and eyes. The little girl was wearing skates, and the boy's, obviously Jack, was sitting on the ice nearby. The little girl's eyes were wide with fear. I didn't understand until I saw the ice under their feet. It was cracking.

"It's okay." Jack said as he reached his arm out in an attempt to calm down the girl. "Don't look down, just look at me."

"Jack, I'm scared." The girl was shaking with fear, you could tell.

"I know, I know." Jack took a cautious step forward. The ice cracked under his foot. "But you're gonna be all right. You're not gonna fall in. Uh, we're gonna have a little fun instead."

"No we're not!" the girl insisted.

"Would I trick you?"

"Yes! You play tricks all the time!"

"Well, not this time. I promise, you're gonna be fine." He started going forward a bit more. "You have believe in me."

They stood there for a moment, and then Jack seemed to get an idea.

"You wanna play a game? We're gonna play hop scotch. Like we play every day. It's as easy as one…" He took a step forward, the ice continuing to crack. He pretended to fumble and stumble. The girl laughed. He took another step and then another. "And three." He had made it to a thicker part of the ice. He bent down slowly, eyes never leaving the girl, as he reached for a stick on the ice that I recognized easily. He held it out to the girl. "Now it's your turn." The girl smiled and seemed to trust him. "One." She moved forward a little, the ice cracking even more. She gasped. "That's it, that's it." He held the stick out further. "Two." She moved forward even more, ice cracking more still. She gasped again, her head bobbing up and down as she looked from Jack to the ice, the ice to Jack. "Three!" He used the crook of his stick to grab her and pull her off of the thin part.

When he was pulling her off, he flung her right across the ice onto the thick part. She didn't appear to be hurt. In turn, Jack went flying onto the thin part of the ice. He smiled with triumph and started to stand. The girl lifted her head and smiled at him. He stood and laughed that laugh that I had come to fall in love with. As he reached out for her hand, the ice beneath him collapsed, dragging him under. Before he was completely under, the little girl yell out his name. Jack looked up and saw the moon.

The next thing I saw his body floating in the water under the light of the moon. Then his hair started to turn white, and his eyes flew open, the same color as Jack's eyes now. Then I snapped back to reality. I looked into Jack's eyes and knew that it was true.

"Oh my God. That's why you… how you…" I started crying before I could finish.

I swear I heard Jack mutter "Girls confuse me." He hugged me and I soaked his shoulder with tears. Then he pulled me away from his shoulder and looked me in the eye.

"It's okay. I'm okay. We're all fine. Just calm down." Jack said, using that same tone that he'd used for the girl, which made me cry harder. He looked around, like what do I do? Then, as if at his wits end, he kissed me just like I had him.

All my fears and worries and doubts and every other icky, horrible feeling melted in that kiss. The tears stopped coming and the sobs vanished without a trace. Jack was fine. If he was fine, then I would be too. Everything would work itself out, I was sure of it.

"I believe in you Jack." I said when he pulled away. Then _I_ wrapped _my_ arms around _his_ neck and kissed him in return. I don't know for how long we sat like that, but what broke it up was a gasp from behind me. We broke apart again to see Rapunzel standing there, a look of hurt and betrayal on her face.

"I thought you loved me Jack." Rapunzel said with tears in her eyes. "And Vanessa I saved your life last night! Why would you do this to me?"

"I never said I loved you Rapunzel!" Jack exclaimed, standing up in indignation.

Rapunzel was already gone. I looked at Jack with a look of concern.

"What do we do about her? I can't go talk to her and you certainly can't. So who's gonna make her feel better?"

"I guess it's just up to Merida or someone else like that. She doesn't want to see either of us."

"What do you think they're going to say now that they know we're dating?"

"They won't say anything. It's just another relationship here. We should head inside now. You're freezing to death."

"I am? I wasn't even aware that I was cold!"

He laughed and we both held hands as we sauntered inside.

We pick up next after dinner. I went up to our room and saw that Rapunzel had left a note for Merida to read. I read it anyways.

_Dear Merida, I've decided to go home to pursue my dream of seeing the lanterns. I've told you about them before, the ones that came on my birthday. There's nothing left for me here at the Academy. The man I loved was kissing Vanessa. I thought we were friends. I cannot believe that she would do that. So, anyways, I hope that you can understand that it has nothing to do with how many times you've nearly shot me with an arrow. This is all Vanessa's fault. I probably won't be coming back, so let Melody have my bunk. I love you like you were my very own sister, and I will miss you. But I won't be back, remember that. Good bye, Meri._

_Love, Rapunzel._

I put the note back in the envelope and set it back on Merida's pillow. She was gone, just gone. At least she was going to go do something that she loved and had been dreaming of forever. I got changed into a dress that Rapunzel had given me my first day. It had a pink strapless top covered in white gemstones with a black silk sash beneath it. The skirt was high low (I'm assuming most of you know what one of those looks like) and frilly and pink. Pink was my least favorite color, but Rapunzel had insisted that I looked beautiful in it. Then I sat in front of a dressing table as Cinderella brushed and tugged at my hair. Before I knew it, my luxurious hair was in a fishtail braid, similar to this one.

Snow White painted that for me. Cinderella placed a little tiara on my head and I was off to meet Jack at the dance. When I saw him, I made a little tsk noise. He was wearing the exact same clothes he had been wearing every day since forever, I'm pretty sure, anyways. I'd only known him one day. Sad, but we knew we were in love.

"Wow, I've never seen you in pink before." Jack said in astonishment.

"Don't be so surprised. I'm only wearing it for Rapunzel."

"So you worked everything out?"

"Not even close. She up and left to go see those lanterns you were talking about. I nearly forgot that her birthday was coming up."

Jack sighed and muttered something about confusing girls. I groaned teasingly and we both made our way onto the dance floor. We danced no matter what kind of song was playing. Fast songs, we were the life of the party. Slow songs, we literally flew around the gym, the envy of all the other couples. When the dance was over, neither of us were even out of breath. We were just laughing unbelievably loudly.

"I enjoyed this time we had together." Jack said as he stood outside my dorm room.

"I did too. And thank you for showing me about that stuff before." I said timidly. He leaned down and kissed me, then walked away humming the last song of the night. I sighed romantically and literally spun into the room. Melody was asleep in Rapunzel's bunk. Merida hadn't come back yet, and I realized that getting on her bad side was an awful idea. If she read that note, she'd hate me. So I grabbed to note and jammed it in the paper shredder. I'd tell Merida the truth about where'd she'd gone; I'd just omit her needless anger towards me as her motivator for leaving.

As it turns out, Merida was too tired to ask any questions. She came into the room, climbed onto the ladder, flung herself onto her bed and probably passed out instantly, fully clothed and wearing shoes, sword strapped to her side still. I stifled a giggle as I let my hair down and rubbed the makeup off of my face. When I changed into my nightgown and lay down in my bed, I thought over the day. The good parts and bad parts were evenly matched so that the day wasn't sure what kind of day it was. I rolled over and closed my eyes, the image of Jack falling into the ice searing itself into my eyelids.


	6. The Fall

A few mornings later, I was expecting my usual first sight of Rapunzel's hair dangling in my face. I'd been expecting it every day for the past five days. But she was gone, off to see the floating lantern's gleam, as she'd told me once. Today was the day that we all piled on a bus and made our way to camp. Odd time to go to camp, considering that we were now three days away from Christmas. Jack and I sat together on the bus, naturally. He caught me up on our plans for causing joy through the use of snow. Then he explained some more about how he'd saved the world.

"Remember when I told you that I had nobody before Rapunzel and you? Well, it was even worse than that. Nobody believed in me." The way he said it made it sound like his whole family had been slaughtered, not just that nobody believed in him.

"And that's a bad thing how?" I asked, confused.

"When you're like me, if people don't believe in you, they can't see you. They can walk right through you and they can't hear you. I went three hundred years completely unnoticed. The first time someone mentioned me, they said I didn't exist, that Jack Frost was just an expression. It took three hundred years for a kid to believe in me. Can you imagine how lonely that was?"

I was about to say yes, that I could, but that would make me sound insensitive. I just shook my head and grabbed his hand.

"Like I told you before, I believe in you Jack."

He smiled down at me. Merida was sitting across from us. I wouldn't have bothered mentioning that, except that her head was whipping from side to side and she seemed panicked. She stood up.

"We forgot someone!" she yelled frantically.

"Who?" the bus driver said in reply.

"Rapunzel!"

So this was when I had to tell her. I gulped with anxiety, but then I steeled my nerves and took control of my emotions that were flopping all over the place lately. Ever since Jack got here, I've been  
behaving really weird. It's getting a bit awkward. But that's not important right now. I turned to Jack.

"Go sit with Hiccup."

"What? Why?"

"I've never asked you for anything, just do it!"

"But Merida's sitting there."

"That's the point. I need to talk to Merida about the Rapunzel issue. I shredded the note that Rapunzel left her. I have to tell her."

Jack stood up and took the step forward that it would take to get to the next seat. Merida stared up at him in confusion. Before she could say a word, Jack had used the crook of his staff to swipe Merida out of her seat and next to me. Jack gave me thumbs up and sat. Hiccup stared at him with a look like "Um, okay then." Merida looked over at me.

"What is goin' on? Is Jack just on a rampage or did you tell 'im to do that?"

"I told him. Look, there's something I have to tell you. About Rapunzel." I took a deep breath and decided to just say the two words I'd been denying this whole time. "She's gone."

Merida looked confused. "What do ya mean gone? As in, she's dead, or she's left us?"

"She went home. A very long time ago." I counted on my fingers. "Five days now. You never noticed before?"

"Well, we don't have any of the same classes, so I was just assuming that she was getting up early and coming back to the room after we were asleep."

"What about lunch and dinner? You didn't get suspicious when you never saw her there?"

"I thought she was just helpin' a teacher. She was always helpin' someone."

Merida looked hurt, kind of the way Rapunzel had looked when she saw Jack and I kissing. I hugged her and she started crying.

"Why'd she go? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no, nothing like that. I did something wrong. Well, not really wrong, there was just a misunderstanding. See, I was in the courtyard with Jack and he showed me how he came to be Jack Frost. We were kind of having a moment, and Rapunzel saw us kissing. She thought that Jack wanted to be with her, so she felt hurt, and she decided to just go back to her tower to see those lights that come on her birthday. She wrote you a note, but if you would have read that, you would've hated me."

By that part Merida had lifted her head and was glaring at me with pure hatred. I knew then that I had only delayed the problem. She was going to get mad at me one way or another. At least this way, she would get over it. Hopefully.

"She left me a note?!" The whole bus turned to look at us. "Och, what're ya'll lookin' at? Find somethin' else to do, ye great gawks!" Everyone turned away. "Why didn't you tell me? No, I don't even care why you didn't tell me. All that matters is that you didn't. I can't believe we were actually starting to be friends."

"Merida, I didn't…" She cut me off.

"It doesn't matter. I thought you were an example. I wanted to be like you."

"Meri…" I tried again.

"Well, now I'm not going to be like you. You're a beast! That's what you are!"

"Merida, please!'

"I'll never be like you!"

"Just listen to me!"

"I'd rather DIE than be like you!"

I sat there in shock. I had tried to be a good friend. I wanted to protect her from the hurt that would have come from that note, but I should have just let her find out on her own. This would have all blown over by now. But that was no call for getting in my face like that. I felt my anger boil up until I just exploded.

"I was just trying to help! Have you ever helped anyone besides yourself?!"

"I tried to help you! Maybe I should have let Mulan cut your hair off when you were sleepin' instead of bein' a good friend!"

"What?" I asked, all the anger rushing out of me like a balloon. It was so bizarre, I had to laugh. "She wanted to cut my hair? While I was sleeping?"

"Yes, and I should have…let…" Her anger seemed to be rushing out of her as well. She giggled a bit. "Her." Merida finished. Then she shook her head and the anger was back on her face. "I'll never forget this Vanessa. I'll let it go for now, but just remember. When you need my help most, I will not help." She stood up and stared at Jack. "Get. Out. Of. My. CHAIR!" With each of the first four words, Jack leaned back a bit more. When she yelled, he fell off the bench and scuttled over to the seat next to me. Merida continued on as though nothing strange had happened at all.

"Does she freak you out as much as she freaks me out?" Jack asked, leaning close to me to both get as far away from Merida as he could get, and so that nobody would hear what he was saying.

"Are you just kidding?" I asked. With him, I could hardly ever tell what was serious and what was a joke.

"No. Don't ever leave me alone in a room with her. I don't know what would happen. Most likely; she'd kill me."

"What? You're scared that Merida is going to kill _you_? It's me she's angry with, not you."

"But she's so brutal and… not like most other princesses."

"None of us are. The Disney dorm is chock-full of weirdness."

"But she's the only one that scares me."

"Jack, you should be more afraid of Snow White. _She_ creeps me out."

We both looked over at her. She was talking to a bird, actually having a conversation with it. Whenever it chirped or tweeted, she'd say something like, "How interesting! And what's she like?" When we turned back, we both shuddered with the willies.

"Not so scared of Merida anymore." We laughed.

Then the bus groaned to a halt and a couple of girls squealed. I looked out the window, expecting a winter Wonderland… and was severely disappointed. Not a snowflake in sight. It was actually lush and green.

"This is December twenty-third, right?" asked Jack. I nodded. "Then where's the snow? The ice? All of the stuff that comes with winter?"

"This place was blessed by the fairies a long time ago. It's never winter here anymore." said Jasmine. "Unless some force greater than the fairies comes along and makes it snow, we get a pocket of summer no matter what time of year it is."

"Hmm. I wonder if…" Jack opened the window and puffed a breath outside. It turned into a mini tornado, swirling with snow. Then it erupted, scattering a few dozen snowflakes on a rock. "Yes! We can still have fun after all!"

He scooped me up in an unnecessary bear hug. I wasn't expecting it, so I nearly had a heart attack. When he put me down, I was still trying to catch my breath.

"You should really warn me…the next…the next time that you wanna pick me up without warning." I chastised, out of breath.

"You just made absolutely no sense. If I warn you, then I won't be picking you up without warning."

"You know what I meant!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, I did. Let's get off. We're holding up the line." I looked back and indeed there were a couple grumpy looking students behind us, Merida included.

Once we were off the bus, I turned a full circle, imagining what this place would look like covered in snow. The windows of the cabins would be frosted over, of course. The ice would be frozen, people skating around, having fun. Then the field would be a fully fledged war zone, snow balls flying from every which way. Jack and I would be on the same team of course. We'd be undefeatable. Whenever I would be about to be smacked by a snowball, Jack would call out "Vanessa, look out!" Wait a minute. Daydreams don't actually call out to you. I had barely just snapped out of it when a soccer ball nailed me in the face, knocking me backward into the dirt.

"Are you okay? You were kind of staring off into space there for a minute."

"That's what you're concerned about? I just got hit by a soccer ball!"

"I know, but the staring thing concerns me more." He reached down and helped me up onto my feet.

"Are you hurt?" He was serious, but I just shrugged.

_Knees and elbows are scraped and I'll probably have an octagon pattern on my face until I'm forty, but other than that, just hunky dory. _

Of course, I didn't actually say that out loud. That would have made things weird. The girl's chaperone asked for all the girls to follow her at the same moment that the boy's chaperone asked for the boys to follow him. We kissed and waved as we headed separate ways.

"I'll see you at dinner! We have a pond to freeze and a Winter Games competition to start!" Jack called as he walked away. I waved a final time, then turned and followed the rest of the girls.

We were settled down into our rooms. As it turned out, there was only one bed per room, so I didn't have to share with anyone. It was also weird, because there were dozens of us, but oddly we had enough rooms for everyone to have their own room. It was actually a nice cabin to stay in for two nights, if you thought about it. Real nice.

"Okay, now that you're all settled, it's time to…" The chaperone never got to finish her sentence. Through an open window, a snowball flew in and smacked her right on the back of the head. Her face started to get an angry look, but then blue glitter formed around her face and then vanished. She smiled and then laughed "Go outside and have a snowball fight!" She finally finished. I could tell that she wasn't originally going to say that, and that it was Jack who threw the snowball, but I wasn't going to argue.

Once outside, I saw that Jack had already gotten to work on winter-fiying the place. That and he was nailing everyone with snowballs. It was funny to watch, actually. They didn't stand a chance against Jack. He'd had three hundred years to do nothing but practice. When he saw me, he lowered his hand, a snowball at the ready resting in it, and smiled. I laughed.

"You didn't waste any time, did you?" I asked with a laugh.

"Hey, I froze the pond! Wanna go ice skating?" he asked eagerly.

"Okay!" I had never gone ice skating before, not even when I lived in Canada. Which was sad.

I got a pair of skates from a closet in the dorm and laced them up fast. When I was back outside, Jack was standing there waiting for me.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Of course. Are you gonna bring that staff with you?" I wondered.

"No. I shouldn't need to fly."

"What does that staff have to do with it?"

"It's what enables me to control the winds, which is the real way I fly."

He threw his staff down and raced onto the pond. I took that as a challenge and ran as fast as I could towards the pond. Once I was on, Jack grabbed my hand and attempted to skate with me, but I fell flat on my face instead.

"What was that?" he asked teasingly.

"I don't know how to skate. I never learned." I blushed as he helped me up.

"That's okay. I'll teach you. Start like this."

We spent nearly an hour out there, but I finally managed to learn how to skate. I was so thrilled, I skated to the middle of the pond and did so many twirls, and I got dizzy. I stopped, swooning. Jack laughed and came up to me. Just as he was close enough for me to reach out to me; I heard the ice crack beneath his feet. He looked down at the ice then back up at me.

"Um, this is trouble. How do I save myself? Right, hop scotch." Just as he was about to start, I told him to wait. I said an x-ray spell to check the density of the ice. It wasn't promising. All around him, the ice was too thin to walk on. If he moved at all, he would fall in.

"Jack, don't move. If you do, that ice is going to break." I warned.

He froze where he was. I stood there, wondering what it was that I should do. If I went towards him, all that would happen would be that I would fall in and so would he. He couldn't fly us out of danger, and I didn't know any spells that would help. My magic was also low, so even if I did know something, I couldn't have done anything.

"Jack what do we do?" I asked, tears brimming in my eyes.

"Hop scotch. It's as easy as one, two, and three. You can do it. Just have fun with it."

His voice calmed me down enough for me to think clearly. I took a step forward. The ice didn't crack. Another. Nothing. One more. The ice cracked and I squealed.

"Jack, I'm going to fall in." I said voice full of fear.

"Just look at me. Don't look down, just look at me."

It then occurred to me that he was saying the exact same things to me as he had to his sister. I looked into his eyes and started singing the song that Rapunzel sang to me that day in the woods. I stayed focused on Jack's eyes, the song covering up the sounds of ice cracking at each step. Then my arms were around Jack, tears of relief flowing down my cheeks. Jack might not be a big crier, but I certainly was, if you couldn't tell.

"It's all right. Now we can figure this out together." Jack stroked my hair comfortingly.

I swallowed my tears and wiped my cheeks. We both looked around in circles, trying to find an escape route. We were too far away from everyone else for calling out for help to work. Walking wasn't an option.

"I'll try to get back to the camp. Wait here Jack." I started singing again, eyes focused on Merida's curly mane of red hair, tiny in the distance.

I seemed to have gotten past the thin part. I looked back at Jack and cheered. He gave me a thumbs up and shouted for me to keep going. I took one step forward and the ice gave out beneath me. My last sight was that of the moon.

"Welcome home, Vanessa Frost." said a deep voice I didn't recognize.


	7. Rapunzel's Return

The next thing I can remember, I was somewhere I didn't recognize. I was cold and it was dark, and I was scared. But before I could really react, I was being pulled out of something wet, through something hard and cold. Then I saw the moon. It was so big and so bright that it chased away the darkness, and I wasn't scared anymore. Then I was set down on a frozen lake. I remembered only a few things. A few people, where I was, and what my name was. All of that, and Jack Frost. I remembered when we had met, a week ago. I remembered how he looked, his laugh, how he'd saved his sister, and then I remembered how I had fallen through the ice trying to save him. I looked around and saw the camp where I was supposed to be. Everyone was standing around a fire. I smiled and ran toward them. When I arrived, I found out that they were praying for my soul. I laughed.

"Guys, I'm right here!" I said with a smile. No one moved at all except Jack. He looked around but his view of me was blocked by Merida's hair. "'Scuse me Meri." I said, reaching out to brush her hair out of the way. My hand went right through it. I gasped and tripped. When I fell, my torso went through her skirt and the rest of me stayed behind her. I screamed.

Jack ran over to help me up, a look of concern with a touch of… what was it? I rather think it was fear. Of what, I didn't know, but it was fear all right.

"What happened? Oh, Vanessa, your hair! And your eyes!" Everyone looked over at him like he was insane.

I grabbed a lock of my hair and held it in front of my eyes. The beautiful strawberry blond hair that I was so proud of had become white. Jack handed me a round piece of ice that I would be able to see my reflection in. I took it and looked. My eyes had gone from pale violet to the same color as Jack's. I screamed as loud as I've ever screamed in my life. The only person who covered their ears was Jack. It was starting to become clear to me that only Jack could hear and see me. Nobody else avoided me, and they went right through me to get to Jack. Before they got to him he grabbed my hand.

"Guys, wait! Vanessa! She's right here!"

Everyone shook their heads. Tiana put her hand on his shoulder.

"We know this is hard for you to come to terms with, especially because she died saving your life. But, Honey, there's nothing there."

"No! Look there, where my hand is. Vanessa is there. Believe in her, or you won't be able to see her."

"I see her! Vanessa, what happened to your hair?" said Giselle.

Slowly, people began to either say "I see her!" Or "Where is she?" Merida was one of the latter people. She came over and said that she couldn't see me. I said that I was so sorry for hiding the truth from her. Jack told her that. She cried.

"What happened?" asked Jack.

"I woke up and I got pulled through some cold stuff. Now here I am."

"No, but did anyone say anything to you?"

"A man. He said 'Welcome home, Vanessa Frost.' I didn't see anyone, so I couldn't tell you who."

"The man in the moon."

"Who? And what does he have to do with anything?"

"The man in the moon brought all of the guardians here. He brought you as well."

"Um, but why? Why me? I didn't do anything heroic!"

"Uh, yes, you did. You saved me."

"By dying before I could get to help?"

"A big shard of ice flew up into the air and hit my staff. It flung it all the way to me and I used it to fly away. I'm going to melt that ice now, so that that will never happen again."

"But what did he mean by welcome home? And why'd he call me Vanessa Frost?"

Jack himself seemed puzzled about that, so he looked down at my feet. When he looked back up, he was smiling. I could tell he knew something.

"Vanessa, look down."

When I did, I saw that the ground at my feet was frosted over. I looked back up in confusion. He pointed to a tree, and told me to touch it. I did. Swirls of frost instantly covered the whole trunk. I laughed. I could do it too! I could control the winter weather, just like Jack could.

"But why make another Guardian who controls the winter weather? They already have you! Why me?"

"The man in the moon doesn't explain anything to anyone. Only when they ask what trouble they're up against. He never told me what my purpose was, but that was because he knew that I would find it out on my own. I did, actually, with a tiny bit of help from the Tooth Fairy."

I looked up at the moon and pleaded in my mind for him to tell me what we were up against. Maybe I shouldn't have asked that, because soon we were all surrounded by the very same creature that had attacked me back at the dorm.

"Hobogoblins!" yelled one of the guys. Everyone ran screaming except for Jack and me.

"What do you want to do here?" asked Jack.

"This first." I kissed him. Then I grabbed a sword that had been abandoned. It immediately became covered with frost. "Next, this."

Completely by myself, I charged the front line. I did surprisingly well for a girl who just recently got magic powers and had no help. The Jack stepped in to help. We worked doubly as fast as a team but we couldn't hold them off. We ran inside.

"What happened?" asked Merida.

"When? Out there or before?" Then I remembered that she couldn't hear me. She was asking Jack.

"Vanessa fought like a true Guardian and I helped her out, but there are too many of them for us to fight alone."

Merida and Mulan whispered to each other for a moment, and then they turned and faced the crowd. They were all talking and yelling and arguing and crying, so every time Mulan wanted to begin, she had to stop because no one was listening. Merida groaned and took a deep breath.

"SHUT IT!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Everyone stopped talking and turned to face them. "It's all yours Mulan."

"Jack Frost is right. They alone cannot fight a war. We must all band together with a common interest; killing those ugly little things once and for all. They killed Derek. They nearly killed Vanessa. They've been terrorizing our school grounds for years, but now they have the gall to march on our very own camp."

"We have to fight them together." Naveen cried from the back of the room. Tiana reached out and grabbed his hand, and the Merida grabbed her hand and Hiccup grabbed her hand and so on and so on until we were all holding hands with someone.

Was it massively cheesy? Yes, without a doubt in my mind. Did it actually help? Yes, surprisingly. We were all more bonded, more connected. Several people called out that they could see me, Merida among them. She looked over at me and smiled and I knew she could see me.

"So who's ready for the fight of your lives?" asked Jane, a girl from the Disney dorm.

"None of us are ready!" we all cried. Then I cried, "But we fight the hobogoblins no matter how ready we are!"

We went down into the emergency weapons storage and we were all very surprised to find that there were enough weapons for everyone. The chaperones were cowering in the corner and refused to help us out. They were such _great_ role models, weren't they? Once everyone was armed, we all burst out the door and charged the hobogoblins. Only one teensy problem. There weren't any left by the time we got outside. There were only three living things in the field, a white horse, a brunette guy with a frying pan in his hand and a brunette girl wielding also a frying pan. They turned slowly in a circle, as if checking for oncoming attackers. When they were facing us, something about the girl struck a memory chord. The guy and horse, I'd never seen before, but the eyes on this girl were so familiar. Emerald green. Her cheekbones were dusted with freckles. Her hair was really short, ragged as well, as if it was cut with safety scissors. The girl was also looking at me as if she knew me. Something clearly had dawned on her.

"Va…Vanessa, is that you?" she asked.

"Rapunzel? What happened to your hair?" I asked, realizing then how I knew this girl.

"I could say the same thing to you. Why's it white?"

"Long story, but I'm not sure exactly why it's white. But what did you do here? Frying pans? You two killed them all with frying pans?"

Everyone gave a nervous laugh. We had been really high strung a moment ago, thinking that some of us were going to face certain death. But she had taken care of that for us.

"Oh, I'm being awfully rude. This is Eugene Fitzherbert. He took me to see the floating lanterns."

"So that's what they were. Lanterns." Jack said. I elbowed him. "Sorry, nothing. Nothing at all"

"You should come in. Those hobogoblins could come back at any second." I warned.

"Oh, not anytime soon. Look at the trees closest to us. What do you see tied to the trunks?"

I looked around and saw what appeared to be crazy long brown hair. She had set up a perimeter.

"Wait, its just hair. That's not going to stop them for long." I said

"This hair will. It's all mine, so it still has magical properties. Just, instead of the power to heal people, it now has the power to kill. But only if you touch it."

"Wait, then how'd you two get it up in the first place?"

"We have our ways. But you're right; it's not going to stop them for long. They'll figure out to tunnel under it. We should get inside though. I have a story to tell."

When we were safe inside, Rapunzel told us the entire story. She went back to her tower to find her mother dead and gone. Eugene had come along, and Rapunzel struck a deal with him. He would take her to see the lanterns in exchange for her crown. Eugene was really poor, and he needed the money. So he took her, but they unexpectedly fell in love along the way. They'd found Maximus (the horse) and found out that he was a palace horse. They got to the town and saw the lanterns, as it was her birthday. Then they found out that Rapunzel's parents were the king and queen, which she didn't know. So they went to the castle and Rapunzel found her family again. When the court got word of the hobogoblin situation here, Rapunzel immediately realized her friends were in possibly mortal danger. She'd gotten over the kiss a while ago, so she decided to do what was right.

"The end." she finally wound down.

"Wait, but you never explained how come your hair is short now!" said Merida.

"That's not important right now."

I could tell she was hiding something; I just didn't want to press her for answers.

"Well, we should eat and get some rest. We all know that hobogoblins are stronger at night, so that is when we must be prepared."

So indeed everyone ate and got some rest. Except for Jack and I. Well, we ate, we just didn't rest. We volunteered for the first watch. We sat on a couch, listening to everyone breathe.

"This is the most surreal experience of my life." I said after a long silence.

"What has been?"

"My whole school year so far. Friends the first day, a first. Then a very eventful second day. You and Hiccup came along on my third day, and we were a couple by the fourth. Now this. I got here, fell through ice, died, was resurrected by the freaking man in the moon, and now we're almost ready to declare war."

"What, you don't like this?"

"No! It's a significant improvement over being ignored. But everything happened so quickly. I'm afraid that if I blink, I'll open my eyes and this will all be over."

"The secret to a fast-paced world is just live and let live. I've learned that over the centuries."

"Oh, now you make deep philosophical comments. Where were those when I needed them?"

"Waiting for the right time. You should get some rest too. I can cover the watch alone."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." He kissed me and smushed my head down onto his lap. He lowered a blanket onto me and I closed my eyes. No lap I'd ever slept in was more comfortable.


	8. Training

So, after an unfortunate mishap that occurred while I was sleeping, Jack decided that I needed training. What do I mean by unfortunate mishap? Umm, I froze us both to the couch. We were stuck like that for three hours. Magical ice and snow and frost are as stubborn as Jack and I. It doesn't melt until it's good and ready. Sad, really, but that's how it works. While Mulan and Merida were training the people who couldn't fight in the weapons room, Jack would show me how to make varying levels of blizzard.

"There are only four levels to blizzards. There are light ones that you could walk in without getting cold. Then there are two levels of moderate, followed by blizzards that rip roofs off of houses. Right now, all I need is for you to make a small, light blizzard."

"I'll do it on one condition." I replied.

"What's that?"

"When I'm done you tell me about what it was like when that first child started to believe in you."

"We're on the brink of war and you want me to tell you a story?"

"Jack, you and I both know you'd rather tell me a story than go into a war."

"I know. But I can't lose my focus now. We have to be prepared. Now, picture the blizzard happening. Start with the wind. Light gusts, okay? Make it cold." A light gust of wind swirled around the room, whipping some hair out of place. Jack laughed. "Good work. Next, light flurries. Then, you'll have the whole blizzard done and accounted for. When the war thing boils over, I'll teach you how to make a snow day." Flurries started coming down around us, but only light ones. Better than all of my previous attempts combined. "You can stop now." The wind died and the flurries stopped. I bit my lower lip and smiled (an annoying habit I picked up when smiling too big made me squeal).

"So, how was that?" I asked.

"You've done me proud Miss Frost." Jack said in a week attempt at a general's voice.

"Sir, yes sir." I replied without a change in my voice. We sat down on the chairs we had brought down yesterday. "Okay, now tell me the story."

"Show or tell? Because I suck at telling." I held out my hand and he dropped another tooth into my hand.

"What's with the teeth?" I asked. "It's starting to get weird."

"They have memories in them. Long story. Just watch."

So there I was again, somewhere where I wasn't actually there at all. I was staring through a window at a little boy. He had a stuffed bunny in front of him. He appeared to be having a serious discussion with it. The only thing I heard was what was probably the very last sentence.

"I knew it." He picked up the bunny and dropped it on the floor.

Then I was standing in the room, watching as Jack made drawings in the frost of an Easter egg and then a bunny. Jack the used his winter magic and made the rabbit come out of the window. It actually hopped around in the air for a few seconds before softly crumbling to snow. The boy laughed and then a snowflake landed on his nose. His eyes widened.

"Jack Frost." said the boy with a mix of joy and realization.

"Did you say…" started Jack.

"Jack Frost." finished the boy.

"He said my name." muttered Jack.

"Jack Frost."

"He said it again."

Jack Turned to look at the boy as if he wasn't afraid of being seen.

"You said…"

"Jack Frost." The boy looked at Jack with pure joy on his face.

"That's right." Jack said, backing up and running his hand through his hair. "That's me. Jack Frost. That's my name!" He was getting giddy now. I knew his giddy voice and that voice was it. "You said my name."

The little boy's jaw opened wider than I thought possible for a human being. Jack started to look confused.

"Wait, can you hear me?" The boy nodded, mouth still hanging wide open. "Can you see me?" The boy nodded, this time with a smile. Jack's eyes lit up and a grin so big I'd never seen it before came to his face. He made this weird noise that had to be laughing, starting with a smile and finished with an expression of… something I can't describe. Like realization and joy and relief all bundled into one. "He can see me." He grinned again. "He sees me!" Jack did a little midair back flip, because that is what makes Jack Jack.

"You just made it snow." said the boy.

"I know!" replied Jack.

"In my room!"

"I know!"

"You're real?"

"Yeah! I'm the reason for all the blizzards and the snow days. And you remember when you went flying on that sled the other day?"

"That was you?" asked the boy with so much surprise it was a miracle this kid hadn't blown up by now.

"That was me!"

"Cool!"

"I know, right?"

"But what about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy and…"

"Real, real, real! They're all real! Every one of us is real."

"I knew it!"

Then I was back in the present. I smiled up at Jack.

"That was the first thing I found out about you that didn't make me cry! That must have been the best day of your life." I said with wonder.

"Second best."

"What could top a day like that?! That was what you had been waiting for for three hundred years!"

"But the day we met easily tops it."

I laughed and hugged him.

"Why are you so good at everything? It's not fair!"

"I'm not good at everything. Just nearly everything."

I laughed again and we kissed. Alice chose that time to come downstairs.

"The hobogoblins have made it inside the perimeter. And they brought friends this time"

We looked at each other and rolled our eyes, like "Here we go again." We grabbed our weapons and ran outside with everyone else. Alice was right, they had brought friends. A lot of them.


	9. Christmas Eve

Not only were we up against a hobogoblin army, now we had giants and trolls and even werewolves to take care of. Jack and I turned to the students of the school. They looked at us expectantly. I grabbed Merida's hand.

"What do we do here, General?" I asked.

"Nay, I'm not the General. The two o' you are our Generals." She shook her head with a smile.

"But I don't know what to do!"

"Just have fun with it." Jack said, hand on my shoulder. I gulped and looked over the enemy army. "You'll take the ones on the left; I'll take the ones on the right?"

"Same with the troops?"

"Done." Then we turned back to the kids. "Thank you for agreeing to fight this war with us. We know many of you will be doing this at the risk of your own lives. We fight anyways! We will be brave, courageous, determined…" Merida cut him off.

"Will ya just do the war cry already? We dunna have time for a monologue."

"To battle!" Then we all screamed. Maybe the fact that really high pitched screams were being aimed at them would scare the enemy away. Nope, that didn't work.

So we started with our war. I wasn't sure what to do, actually. I just ran in like everyone else. Jack went in a completely separate direction than me, so I just flew up above the field and decided just to lend a hand where it was most necessary. Of course, Giselle was holding a little dagger, shaking with fear with her eyes closed, completely surrounded by hobogoblins. I guess the worse monsters decided to take on a more worthy opponent. I swooped down and froze a dozen of them, but I needed her help.

"Giselle, open your eyes." I said. She opened them, still shaking.

"Vanessa, I'm scared." Giselle said in a voice completely unlike her own.

"No, no. Um, none of that. Just calm down. You're not gonna die." I took out at least two dozen more hobogoblins. I then got an idea. "We're gonna have a little fun instead."

"How are we going to have fun? We're surrounded, and killing is not one of the things I'm good at." In answer, I made a snowball appear in my hand. I closed one eye, aimed, and whipped it right at a hobogoblin. Jack had told me that hobogoblins can't be hit with snowballs and live. Snow hurts them in the first place, but snowballs? It's like you're shooting them.

"Here, just keep throwing!" I said as I flew away, leaving enough snow to come up to her knees.

Nobody else really needed help at that point. Except Charlotte, but she was beyond any help. Our first casualty. I found out that werewolves can only be defeated with silver the hard way. There I was, completely surrounded with werewolves, my snow powers useless, unable to fly away because they were too tall and I wasn't fast enough. They were just about to pounce when they were all hit with a volley of arrows. They fell down dead. I looked around for Merida, but it wasn't her. It was Mulan.

"Silver tips. I'm always prepared." She went over to the bodies and collected her arrows, running back into the fight faster than I could say "Thank you."

Next issue; Rapunzel. She was doing great, but there was a giant right behind her, about to pick her up and undoubtedly eat her. She was too engrossed with her fight with a troll to notice it. I flew over and pushed her out of the way just as the hand made a grab. It picked me up instead. When my head was inches away from its teeth, I heard the loudest meow in the history of the world. The giant lowered me down to stare in shock at the giant cat leaping straight for him, Alice riding on its back. I'm pretty sure she said "Go Dinah!" So it had to be the cat we threw down the well. I didn't have time to ask questions. He dropped me. It was quite a distance, so if I hadn't landed on Maximus' saddle, I would have died.

"You are the best horse in the history of the world. I owe you a great debt, Hero." I said, hugging his neck. There was a bow in one of his saddlebags. I had dropped my sword somewhere, so I grabbed it. I couldn't see any arrows around, so I just made some out of ice. Then I was unstoppable, sending arrow after arrow. I think at one point I actually laughed. That scared me almost as much as the war itself and the thought that my friends were in danger.

Speaking of in danger, I was riding Maximus around, shooting arrows when I heard Jack scream. I whipped around, looking for him. Then I saw him. A troll had each of his appendages, and I could tell they were pulling. I panicked and jumped from Maximus as he was galloping. I hit the ground hard, but I barely felt it. I stood and ran toward him. I shot one troll with an arrow. The trolls dropped him. He just laid there moaning. They tried to grab him again, I stood over him, bow at the ready.

"Get back!" I yelled. But it was all just bravado. I was panicking. Luckily, Tiana and Ariel took care of the trolls. Jack was in no shape to fight. I called for Pocahontas and she and John Smith carried him back into the dorm on a stretcher. I wanted to go with them, to make sure he was okay, but something really strange held me back.

Snow White was standing at the edge of the woods, a little blue bird on her fingers. She appeared to be singing to it.

"Aaah ah, aaah ah." she sang. The bird replied with the exact same song. She did it three times. On the last 'ah' she held the note for a long time before yelling at the top of her lungs "TTACK!" You get it, attack? But anyways, deer and birds and rabbits and skunks and squirrels and chipmunks and raccoons all came running out of the woods and actually attacked the enemy fearlessly and ferociously. Several eyeballs hit the dirt, and many a face was scratched to the point of nothingness. Once, I saw five deer take out a giant.

The shock of that was nothing compared to the shock of seeing what Snow White had managed to do to herself in less than ten seconds. Her hair was a mess, her bow was gone. Her skirt was shorter and torn at the sides she was barefoot and the puff sleeves of her dress were gone. She had also managed to get hold of two double-bladed war axes. I stood staring in shock until she came over to me.

"What happened to you?" I asked with shock and concern.

"I've been waiting for a war like this. I just needed to go and get my reinforcements." she said, not sounding a thing like what she usually sounded like. "And what about you? You have any reinforcements coming?"

"Jack called some in while he was on guard duty last night. He said he called in the other Guardians."

"What?! Why would he call in those flower-pickers?! Santa Claus? The Tooth Fairy? The Sandman? The Easter Bunny? What are they gonna do? Kill them with over-excessive friendliness?"

"Ten minutes ago you were a literal flower-picker. Seriously, you were picking flowers and then you ran off into the woods." I looked up and saw a little hummingbird person over Snow's head. It gave me a note and then flew away. It said that none of the Guardians would be able to make it. I groaned and grabbed another arrow out of thin air. "Well, there goes that plan. We have to do this."

I was about to throw myself back into the thick of the fight when Pocahontas ran out and grabbed my arm.

"Jack wishes to speak with you."

"Now? But we're in the middle of a war right now!"

"He insisted. He says it is important."

I dropped my bow and ice arrows and ran for the building. The only thing he'd ever insisted on was going out with me, so if it was that important, I had to hear it. I went to where they were tending to the wounded and closed my eyes. These people were my friends, and now they were so injured. Naveen looked terrible. I didn't think he was going to make it.

"Where's Jack? I don't see him." I didn't.

"He's over here." She moved a curtain out of the way and there he was.

"Why's he here?"

"So that we remember that he doesn't need as much attention as the others do. He'll heal on his own, quickly too, but I don't know how quickly. Probably not for a couple of days."

I went in and she moved the curtain back in place. Jack appeared to be asleep. When I touched his cheek, he opened his eyes and smiled at me.

"How're you feeling?"

"Awful. I'd be feeling a lot worse if you hadn't stepped in. You were amazing."

"Not that amazing. Did you see that giant cat?"

"Yeah! Isn't that crazy?" he said with a laugh. Then he groaned. "Laughing hurts. But if I don't laugh, I'll cry."

"Crying's overrated." It was my turn to laugh.

"Yeah, you should know. It's amazing that you haven't cried about this whole thing yet."

"I might give out without any warning." I chuckled, and then figured I'd tell him a little bit of a story. "Snow White's out there kicking some major ass. She's using the woodland creatures that she usually hangs out with. She told me she'd been waiting for a war. Not expecting it, just waiting for it."

"And how are the other Guardians doing?"

"Oh, um… Tooth sent me a note. None of them can come."

"What? What did they say?"

"They said they protect children who believe, they don't fight in battles just because another Guardian feels obliged."

"I don't feel obliged, I want to!"

"Jack, just calm down." He lay back down and sighed. "How about you tell me what you wanted to tell me."

"Oh, okay." He sounded surprised. Then he seemed to be at a loss for words. What he said sounded made up and not actually what he wanted to say. "Tomorrow's Christmas, so we shouldn't go fight. We should all stay inside."

"That's a good idea. But what did you really want to tell me?"

"It's nothing."

"You insisted I come to talk to you in the middle of a war, it's clearly something."

"I was going to tell you to go back to the academy. I was going to say it was too dangerous and that you should leave, but I know you'll be fine."

I smirked. That was true. I was holding us together. Then I asked him what time it was. "Nearly dinner. Why?"

"We're all going to go down to the cellar and eat something for Christmas Eve."

"Even the injured people?"

"Everyone, Jack. I gotta go round them up."

I ran back outside and wondered how I was going to get their attention. I grabbed Tiana and told her to round up the troops.

"How am I supposed to round all of them up?" she asked.

"The same way you round up the troops at the dorm. Tell them to come in for dinner."

She seemed to get it. She whistled and all the kids and even most of the enemy turned and looked at her. "We're going to eat now. RUN FOR IT!"

All the campers ran for the cabin. Once everyone was inside the cabin, we shut the door and we barricaded it. We all ran down into the cellar and shut the hatch above us.

Tiana went into the little kitchen down there and started to cook a chicken (one that I kicked once) and I offered to help. It turns out that I couldn't cook. I cut my fingers to crap. By the time Tiana told me to just go check on Jack, I was amazed that I still had fingers. My hands were bleeding from multiple spots.

"Oh, no! Multiple stab wounds!" I yelled when I was in the den. Jack and I laughed, but nobody else seemed to get it.

Half an hour later, we all ate a great big home-cooked dinner. Naveen died, and we all cried and stuffed him in a hole until we could bury him. Then we all fell asleep to the sound of Tiana bawling her eyes out.


	10. The Battle's End

When my eyes opened, the cellar had been magically transformed into a Christmas Wonderland. I didn't know who did it or how, but it just was. There was a tree, garland, wreaths, even enough presents for all of us. I'd fallen asleep next to Jack, so I shook him awake.

"What's the matter? What happened?" he asked, sitting up fast. Then he said ow and laid back down.

"Nothing's wrong, something's right! Look around!"

When he did, he seemed in complete shock. Then he seemed to have remembered something.

"That old devil."

"Who? Who's an old devil?"

"North. You know, Santa. If a house doesn't have decorations on Christmas, he leaves those too."

"Awww, well that's awfully nice of him. Especially after he refused to help us yesterday."

"Should we wake everyone up?"

"Oh, of course! They would be so excited! Wait, there's something missing."

There indeed was something missing. I stood up and made some snowflakes for the ceiling. Extra large in size and glittery. Then I tinted them in Christmas colors. Perfect. Now I could wake everyone up for Christmas. When they were up, they all dashed for the tree. Santa must not have got the news because he left a gift for Naveen and Charlotte. Tiana kept them both, because she was dating Naveen and Charlotte was her best friend. Naveen got cash because Santa never knew what to give him. Charlotte had gotten a dress, big and princessey.

"Lotte was always one for gowns." said Tiana, tears in her eyes.

I myself got a book. It was literally titled "Don't read this yet!" I decided not to read it yet. That exclamation point was intimidating. When I looked around at everyone, I loved Santa more than I ever did. Everyone was having fun and enjoying themselves more than they'd been in a while. Maybe we should have tried to leave instead of fighting. Too late now. We were stuck in this war now. At least we had today off from fighting.

The wounded people were all healing up nicely. No one else should be dying anytime soon. Unless they get killed. Which they wouldn't, not until tomorrow at the very least. The day was looking up, and looking up fast, but then something bad had to happen. There was a loud banging on the cellar hatch. When I opened it, it was Kida.

"Kida? What are you doing here?" I wondered. She hadn't come with us to the camp and the only way into the camp in the first place was straight through the field where we were currently having an interspecies war. "And how are you still alive right now?"

"I teleported once the school was done burning."

"What?! The school was on fire? What happened there?"

"The hobogoblins. Also some werewolves and giants and trolls. They burned down the school. I'm the only one that made it out alive."

There was a collective gasp as the reality of that sank in. It was only the Disney dorm and the two guys in the Dreamworks dorm who'd left the school. Every other dorm full of children, all of the teachers, every one of them, dead and gone now. Jack sat up. That's when I knew how sad he really was. He hadn't sat up since yesterday morning, we'd told him not to. He wasn't sobbing like most of us were; he was just letting the tears come. I ran over to comfort him. Every other couple was the other way around, the guy comforting the girl. It was weird that I was doing the comforting, the being strong.

"Well, Kida, there's a present for you under the tree." I said, voice choked up.

She opened it. It was a new spear, like the one that she had told me that she used to own. She smiled and hugged it close to her. I could tell she was comforted now. Nobody even had to hug her.

"What should we do?" asked Jack, calming down.

"We… wait a minute. What happened to Vanessa?" asked Kida as if she had just noticed.

"I fell through ice and died. But I'm all good now."

"What? Everything about what you just said tells me that you are not okay."

"Don't worry. I am okay. Just finish telling me about what we should do."

"Well it appears that you're in the middle of a war here, so we'll deal with this later, but there's only one person who can help us right about now."

"Who?"

"Mickey Mouse."

"I thought he wasn't real."

"Oh, he's real. He even has several movies."

"He has movies?"

"Yeah. We all have movies."

I looked around the room. "All of you? Even you Jack?"

"Oh yes. I'm not the only one in it though. It's all of the Guardians. In fact, you're the only one here without a movie." Jack said.

"What? Why don't I have a movie?"

"Vanessa, you're not as real as us." said Kida.

"I'm real!"

"People know about us, just not as much as you."

"Oh, that's all. Well, what do we do about the hobogoblins?"

"Something effective. Taking a day off, no matter what day it is, is not effective. Neither is any of us staying here. We have to leave."

"Can you teleport us?"

"Not enough magic left. Besides, we have nowhere to go. And I meant everyone but you and Jack. You can fight the rest of this out by yourselves, and we'll set up a safe house in the mountains."

"How are you going to get there?"

"I found an Easter Bunny tunnel." said Kida.

"Wait! Jack is not yet healed enough to fight!" yelled Pocahontas.

"I can do it. It's best if you guys just leave anyways. There's not many of them left anyways."

Jack stood up. To anyone else, he appeared fine. Only I saw the pain behind his eyes. I looked at him like "You don't have to do this." He shrugged it off and grabbed his staff. I reached for the bow and made an ice quiver and filled it to exploding with ice arrows.

"Did you just make arrows out of ice? I didn't know you could do that!" said Jack.

"You've had three hundred years to figure your powers out and you didn't know you could do that?"

He shook his head. Someone handed me my sword and I strapped it to my side.

"Okay, get everyone out. We've got this covered."

"No way am I leaving!" insisted Snow White.

She grabbed the machine gun that Santa had given her and had it locked and loaded in five seconds flat. I widened my eyes.

"Snow, you can't stay." I replied.

"I have to stay! I am only here on this Earth to defend. I didn't know that until this whole war business got started. But I feel in my heart now that I have to fight. That entire flower picking and singing and talking to animals was just a front to make me pretend that I felt something. I didn't." I looked into her eyes and I knew that she was telling the truth. I smiled.

"Fine, you can stay. Just live through the battle, and we can arrange a fight for you." I said. She jumped up and down, squealing.

Kida took the others and went down into the tunnel. Jack and I turned to look at each other just before we opened the door.

"I love you." we both said at the same time. We hugged, and then opened the door.

They had been waiting for someone to come outside. They tried to burst in, but Snow blasted them back pretty fast. We leapt outside and attacked with all the powers we had. I shot arrow after arrow and Jack froze so many. Snow sniped the hell out of them. Just when the hobogoblins were out of reinforcements and the hobogoblins were down to about six left, a giant picked up Snow and threw her. I didn't see where she landed. I stared in shock at the horizon where I'd seen her vanish. Then I snapped out of it.

"This one's for snow!" I said, shooting an arrow straight into his forehead. He crumbled to dust.

Jack and I fought on alone, making good progress. Then Jack's staff broke. He screamed in pain and then seemed to have recovered. But he wasn't doing anything but punching and hitting and kicking and biting.

"Jack, use some magic already!" I yelled.

"I can't!"

"What do you mean you can't?"

"The only thing I can do without my staff is make that frost that covers windows. That's not going to be terribly helpful at the moment, is it?"

"Really?" I groaned and shot yet another arrow. The string on the bow snapped at that precise moment. I threw it on the ground and grabbed my sword.

"Die, weird things!" I yelled.

Naturally, a troll snapped the blade on my sword. I smacked it and it froze into an ice statue. I couldn't fight them like that forever, as proven by what happened ten seconds later. Jack and I ended up on the ground, defenseless, surrounded by the last giant, three trolls, and a hobogoblin.

"Well, we fought hard, didn't we?" said jack.

"That we did. We also had some good times together. Only been a week and two days too."

We hugged one more time as the creatures surrounded us. Just when we were completely braced for death, the things stopped coming forward. We opened our eyes and saw that wherever we were touching, blue lights shone. It grew brighter and brighter and soon we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.

"Hop scotch." said Jack.

"One." I replied.

"Two." said Jack.

"Three!" we said together.

As soon as we said three, the light erupted, searing the creatures where they stood. When It finally died down and we opened our eyes, they were gone, char marks in the grass where they had been standing. We let go and stood up.

"We did it! We finally did it!" cheered Jack. We kissed and then decided we were going to head right out to the mountains to tell everyone.

When we arrived, we were received with happiness. Then they realized that Snow wasn't with us.

"She fought bravely, but Snow White could not come see you all with us. She has died a hero." I said.

I found out that at least a dozen more of the injured kids had died. They were buried under mounds of rock. I reached out to touch the one Naveen was under. It got covered in frost. I realized how beautiful it looked and touched all of the other mounds too. Soon they were all glistening in the setting sun.

"We finally did it. Three hard days of fighting has finally ended."

"That's nothing." said Belle, holding a book in her hand. The title was The Trojan War. "The Trojan war lasted ten years."

"I don't think any of us but Snow would have been happy to fight that long." I gave a weak laugh.

Merida was okay. So was Rapunzel. We all hugged.

"I'm so sorry. That goes for both of you." I said, holding them tighter than was necessary.

"No, I'm sorry. I overreacted about that kiss. Foolish of me. But at least some good came out of it." said Rapunzel.

"I'm sorry too. I shouldna have gotten angry with you like that. I take it back, the not wanting to be like you and the not helping you when you needed it most. I take it all back. I'm so sorry." said Merida.

Some time later, after we had all eaten, I asked Kida what we should do now.

"Some of us should make our way to Mickey's castle. Not all of us. We don't need that many of us. You'll go. And Jack too, obviously. Merida and Rapunzel too. I'll come too, if you'd like." offered Kida. I hugged her. She wasn't expecting it, but soon she wrapped her arms around me too.

"I'd love that. But Hiccup has to come to." I said. He was standing right behind me, drinking water. He spewed it out so far, I think it was a world record.

"What? Me? Go through something like this again? I almost died! That's the second time in my life that's happened to me!" exclaimed Hiccup. Merida laughed and leaned her elbow on his shoulder.

"Awww, wee lamb." said Merida in baby-talk. Then she put her hands on Hiccup's cheeks, pulled his face closer and kissed him. We all cheered. We'd been waiting for that. It was clearly their first kiss because when Merida let go his cheeks were beet red.

"Fine, I'll go, but never again after this. Nearly dying twice is quite enough for me, thank you."

We all slept in sleeping bags in a cave that Jack had found. He'd also gone back for his staff. It was in two parts.

"I've got some KrazyGlue!" said Hiccup. Jack touched the broken ends together. A blue light just like the one from before appeared and the staff was whole again. Hiccup's jaw hung wide open. Then he shrugged. "Or you could use light. Light works too." I laughed at that.

When everyone was asleep but me and Jack there was something I had to ask him about. I just had to.

"Jack, the day you came to the Academy I was in love with Derek. When you kissed my cheek, I wasn't anymore. I liked you. What was that?"

"I don't know. I can't change emotions, I make winter weather." He was telling the truth too. I knew when he was lying.

"Just wondering. We should get some sleep."

"Right you are." said Jack. We crawled down into our sleeping bags and fell asleep almost instantly.

This is where my story of the Princess Dorm ends, and where my next tale begins. All you have to do to find out about it is believe. Well, that, and have a computer with internet but you know what I meant!

End of Book 1.


End file.
